EC to crackdown on use of black money in polls

New Delhi: The Election Commission will crackdown heavily on use of black money during the upcoming assembly polls in five states and has put in place stronger measures to monitor illegal cash movement, Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi said.

"The EC will come down heavily against black money during the forthcoming polls," Quraishi said after inaugurating a day-long workshop for political parties on election expenditure monitoring on Monday.

He said the Election Commission (EC) has put stronger measures to monitor illegal cash movement and funds during polls after learning from the experiences of last year assembly polls in Bihar and few other states like Tamil Nadu and West Bengal recently.

The CEC said that political parties should educate their cadres at all levels regarding the guidelines framed by the EC in this regard so that violations are "minimised".

A total of 58 representatives of both national and state- level political parties from Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur participated in the workshop.

He said political parties should exercise self restraint on election expenditure and strictly adhere to the new set of instructions issued by the EC in this regard recently.

Quraishi, who was was accompanied by two other Election Commissioners VS Sampath and HS Brahma, said during the all-party meeting held at its headquarters in October last year, party leaders had themselves asked Commission to check use of excess money and menace of paid news in elections.

Quraishi said the EC believed in preventive rather than punitive measures in monitoring of poll funding and urged all the parties to help the Commission in this regard.

A number of presentations were also given to the participants at the day-long workshop by senior EC officials. Election Commissioner Sampath said candidates should file correct accounts of their expenditure during the polls failing which they may be disqualified for a period of three years.

The participants, during the workshop, also suggested a number of measures to strengthen expenditure monitoring.

The EC had last year had created an exclusive Election Expenditure Monitoring (EEM) cell to check use of black money.